Emboss Resist

 

Hi There! Thought I would show you some emboss resist for some more pastel inspiration for this month's challenge over on the Bee Crafty Stamps Facebook group. 

I began by stamping a 4" square of white card with the freehand borders using Versamark ink. I sprinkled with Clear embossing powder and heated. 

Next I used various patel shades of distress oxide inks to blend over the embossing. 

Once I was happy with the colours, I gave a light spritz with water and also with Distress Spritz in Fossilized Amber.

On a separate piece of card, I stamped the sketchy flower in Sand Dune ink and coloured using pastel coloured pencils. 

On another scrap of white card, I stamped the sentiment using lilac bloom ink and trimmed it to size.

Using 3d foam pads, I attached the background, the flower and the sentiment to the front of the 5x5" card.

Finally, here is a close up of the sparkly background showing the shimmer.

I used:

Freehand Borders #1

Versamark/ embossing ink

Clear embossing powder

Distress oxide inks - I used tumbled glass, twisted citron, dried marigold, shaded lilac and spun sugar.

Distress spritz - I used fossilized Amber

Sketchy flowers stamp set

Mixed messages #4 stamp set

Sand Dune and Lilac blooms Versafine Clair ink

coloured pencils

3d foam pads

4" square of white card

5" square base card

Don't forget, if you find yourself on the Bee Crafty Website from my blog post, you can get yourself an extra 10% off by using my discount code! Just pop BEESALLY10 in at the checkout x

Thanks for looking! 

Can you hear buzzing?

 

Hi there! I made these cute earrings at the weekend using Bee Crafty stamps and shrink plastic. Here's how I made them

I began by stamping the largest bee twice onto clear sanded shrink plastic. 

Next I used a hole punch to add holes between the antennae.  

I cut around the bees leaving a small border, and the holes at the top to attach them to the earrings. 

Once the ink was definitely dry I coloured them using coloured pencils.

 

Using tweezers and a Heat tool I shrunk the bees. You can watch the video of them shrinking here

I added jump rings through the holes and threaded 3 beads onto each of the eye pins.

using round nosed pliers and wire cutters I created a loop at the top of the eye pin and fastened the ear hooks and bees to either end.

Here are the earrings again

I used: 

Bee Mine stamp set

Brilliance ink

Clear shrink plastic, sanded on one side so it can be inked and coloured

Coloured pencils

Heat tool

2 eye pins

2 ear hooks

2 jump rings

6 beads

round nosed pliers and wire cutters

Thanks for looking! 

A Shrink plastic key ring for Bee Crafty

 Hi there!

I thought I would share a bit of shrink plastic with you today. It is something that has been around for a long time, but it seems to be one of those things that you don't see much of it unless you seek it out. I thought I would show you how to make a simple key ring, and let you know a bit more about it. 

Shrink plastic comes in several different sorts. You can get clear, frosted, black and white. If you wish to colour on it you can sand it with some fine sandpaper, although some comes ready sanded. You will need to use a permanent ink  - one that dries on any surface - I use Archival or Brilliance. The ink will need to air dry for a good amount of time  (at least half an hour for Archival and overnight for brilliance)  The easiest way to colour your stamped images once dry is with coloured pencils. A sanded surface will help with this. Be aware that as the item shrinks the colour will intensify, so light shading with coloured pencils will give a better result.

I used: 

shrink plastic

XL Doodle Art dragonfly

archival ink

coloured pencils

corner rounder

hole punch 

heat gun

Key ring findings

First I sanded the surface of my shrink plastic

Then I stamped the dragonfly onto the sanded surface with black archival ink and left it to dry.

I rounded the corners with a punch....

and punched a hole in the corner (a regular hole punch could be used for this too)

Next I coloured the image with pencil crayons - remember paler and lighter is better as it intensifies when shrunk.

On a heatproof surface use your heat gun to start heating. It will curl and squirm, so keep some tweezers close by in case you wish to turn it over or reposition it. Occasionally it can stick to itself. Try and seperate it as quickly as possible if it does, but mind your fingers as it will be hot! 

Once it has finished shrinking, place an acrylic block (not a skinny one, but one with some weight) on top to make sure it is flat. 

Thread a jump ring through the hole and add the keyring. 

As you can see the colours are much deeper than before it was shrunk. I think I should probably have gone even paler! It really is huge fun to play with and a great hit with kids. there is something so magical about the shrink process. 

Thanks for looking! 

Rudolf Days for September

 We are galloping towards the end of September so it is time for another Rudolf day's Challenge. I have made two very simple cards using Woodware Stamps this month.

First is a DL sized card simply stamped with sky blue pearlescent Brilliance ink.

Second is a Woodware wreath stamped in versafine clair on to Kraft and coloured with arteza colouring pencils. I added some stickles to the Honesty and glossy accents to the berries.

Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas inspiration. Thanks to you all for motivating me every month xxx

Just like buses, there will be a few daily posts here due to how my DT posts have fallen. I do hope you can visit and see them! Thanks for looking! 

April Rudolf Days and a Digi from Dora

We are quickly approaching the end of April, so it is time for the Rudolf days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. I've brought two very contrasting cards this time, made with two stamps/ sets I've had in my stash for a long time. The first uses stamps from Little Clare, who I'm sad to say are no longer with us. I stamped in memento and coloured with alcohol based markers. The 3 geese at the front are on an extra fold in the card.

The second card was made with a wood mounted stamp from Penny Black, with hero arts French script in the background and a greeting from woodware. The paper was made with all sorts of sprays with a fair bit of mica in them, so is quite shiny in real life and the trees were embossed in white.
Do pop over to Maureen's blog and take a look at the fabulous inspiration. No harm in making a start on Christmas cards whilst we have the time if you haven't already. 

Finally, here is my DT Card using one of Dora's wonderful digis with a lovely oystercatcher and it's chick at the water's edge, which I coloured with pencils. You can find Dora's fabulous Digis on her website here.
 I do hope you are all okay, and coping with things. How is your hair? I am defintiely ready for a haircut now. Lockdown ponytail seems to be my style, lol. I am sorry I haven't been around as much as I intended here in blogland. I've done 3 zoom karate classes this week and might pull in a 4th if I can. One I ran myself and although I was nervous at first it went well, and I had 10 students. there will be a few more next week too I think. GKR seem to have put things in place very quickly and it is good to see my training buddies and students again.
 Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments. Stay safe xxx
Oh yes, and if you have time, please give my crochet post below a bit of love 😉 Thanks!

A digi from Dora

It is time to showcase another Digi from Dora. Our DT theme this month is farms and horses. I used this lovely horse image, printed on to kraft paper and coloured with my arteza professional colouring pencils. A bit of Mulberry paper and some old designer paper from my stash, with a spellbinders die cut to finish it off.
You can find Dora's digis on her blog here.
I'm entering this in the current challenge at Allsorts where the theme is creatures from the animal kingdom
Thanks for looking!

Boys to Men and a digi from Dora

 The Challenge over at Allsorts this week is to share a card for boys or men. I was asked by one of my karate buddies to make a thank you card for our Sensei. I don't have any Karate themed stamps (even finding digis for adults is dificult) so I googled clip art and found these free images. I then used inks and stencils to create the background. The scrabble tiles looked much straighter in real life, lol. Here is a picture of me with him. If you know of any martial Arts themed stamps please let me know. I have digis from Mo Manning and Kenny K which are great for kids but not really suitable for adults.

My second card should have been on my blog on 24th September, but with one thing and another I am afraid I forgot. Sorry Dora! Better late than never! This was my DT card for Dora's digis that you can find here.  The papers were some I made ages ago using the shaving foam marbling technique and Distress reinkers made into sprays. I've been doing quite a bit of pencil colouring on grey and kraft card as it makes the paler colours pop.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments x

September Rudolf Days

It is 25th September (where did that go?!) and time for another Rudolf Day over at Scrappy Mo's. I have a bit of a poinsettia themed month this month. First is a Single layer card, stamped with a Uniko stamp and coloured with my Arteza coloured pencils. I have been experimenting with adding shadows and feel like I got it right this time!

Next up is oxide inks through a Sweet Poppy Stencil, splattered with some gold ink spray and a stamped sentiment.

Finally I used a woodware set, stamped and dusted in Memento Bahama Blue, and finished off with some diamond stickles and liquid pearls. This was super quick and took longer to dry than to make!
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments. Do pop over to Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas card inspiration.

Punch away at Stampalot

It is the first Sunday of the month and time for another Stampalot Challenge. The challenge this month is to use Punches. Here is my card.

I used a stamp from Ruth's Tonic studios chrysanthemum set, coloured with coloured pencils and blended with a versamarker pen. I stamped the foliage in versa mark and then brushed wild Honey, Picked raspberry and festive berries Distress inks over the top. the flower border is a Tonic studios punch. I then used 2 different sizes of daisy punch (woodware) to make the little flower, which I mounted on a punched circle and added 4 punched leaves(X-cut).
Please pop over to the challenge blog and take a good look at the gorgeous creations of my teamies. I think you will agree that their creations this month are so inspiring. You will also find details of the prize, if not straight away, then in the next few days, hopefully. Looking forward to seeing your fabulous creations using punches. Thanks for looking.